As the Maple Leafs attempted to hit the reboot button while stuffing themselves with turkey and egg nog during the Christmas break, perhaps the most valuable gift stuffed in each of their stockings should have been an eraser.

One they could use to wipe out the game-by-game scores of the past five weeks.

While you always can learn from past failures, a quick glance at the Maple Leafs track record since Nov. 19 should be considered alarming for even the most optimistic of glass-half-full observers.

Coming off a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders on that particular night, the Leafs have posted just one regulation-time victory in their past 18 contests. that being an impressive 7-3 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks at the Air Canada Centre back on Dec. 14.

The fact that the Leafs and their 41 points, if the season ended today, would still qualify for the Eastern Conference playoffs in the eighth slot is remarkable, especially considering the aforementioned 5-9-4 funk they find themselves mired in right now.

In order to break out of their slip-sliding free fall, Randy Carlyle’s team needs to avoid the depression that comes with looking back and instead look ahead at what is needed to turn their leaky blue-and-white ship around. Otherwise, well, given the recent struggles they have endured, another lacklustre performance at the upcoming Winter Classic would make them look like flops in front of 107,000 fans at The Big House in Ann Arbor, not to mention the millions of TV viewers who will be watching at home on New Years Day.

For assistant general manager Claude Loiselle, there are no legitimate excuses to be offered for Toronto’s recent woes. At the same time, he admits the team has been smacked with a sensory overload of distractions that isn’t about to end any time soon.

“It’s amazing how much has been going on around this team,” Loiselle sasid. “From suspensions to injuries to the upcoming Winter Classic to the compressed schedule, it just seems to go on and on and on.”

To Loiselle’s point, the Leafs have pretty much resembled a soap opera on ice at times, much of it documented by the HBO 24/7 cameras.

Through the team’s first 39 games, David Clarkson has sat out 12 contests thanks to a pair of suspensions, while Dion Phaneuf and Nazem Kadri have each been suspended once. Tyler Bozak has spent more time in the trainers room than on the ice, while fellow centre David Bolland is still more than a month away from returning after he left Vancouver’s Rogers Arena on a stretcher after having his tendon severed by the skate of the Canucks Zack Kassian during a game on Nov. 2.

While the team has struggled to pick up the pieces, the 24-7 crew came on the scene earlier this month to document a team that has just four victories of any kind in its past 16 games. All the while, reports continue to circulate that Calgary Flames president Brian Burke is eyeing Loiselle and/or fellow Leaf management suit Dave Poulin to take over as the full time GM in Cowtown.

Keep in mind, too, that the Leafs are coming off a stretch in which they played 12 times in just 21 days.

These are not excuses. They are facts. Perceive them any way you like.

Either way, there is never a dull moment in Leafland these days.

“At the end of the day, our goal needs to be consistency,” Loiselle said. “You can’t start making rash decisions or rushing into trades that don’t make any sense.”

The bottom line: From management to coach Carlyle to the players, this team needs to wipe the slate clean entering their post-Christmas schedule, which begins on Friday with a date against the Buffalo Sabres.

Need we remind you again: Just one regulation-time victory in the past 18 games.

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Maple Leafs must forget about the past

As the Maple Leafs attempted to hit the reboot button while stuffing themselves with turkey and egg nog during the Christmas break, perhaps the most valuable gift stuffed in each of their stockings should have been an eraser.

One they could use to wipe out the game-by-game scores of the past five weeks.

Say this for the computer that cobbles together the NHL regular-season schedule: Despite some warts in the final product, it certainly has set the stage for some dramatic theatre as teams attempt to scratch and claw their way into the Stanley Cup dance.